A New Start
by btervort24
Summary: Regina and Henry Mills have come back to their hometown in Maryland for the first time in over two hundred years. On the first day, Regina meets Robin, who intrigues and terrifies her. As soon as they come back mother and son deal with drama, secrets and past demons. Vampire AU.
1. Chapter 1

_After over two hundred years, I'm home_ Regina Mills thought as she pulled into the high school's parking lot. She wasn't particularly thrilled to be back in Maryland, but her son Henry wanted to come back home saying that he believed it could be better for them. During the few decades after they left, Regina kept having terrible nightmares about what happened. She only agreed to what Henry wanted not because she believed what he was saying, but because she wanted to make her son happy. Despite her being one hundred percent against this decision.

"Why are we even going to high school? Again?" Henry asked once the car was in park.

Regina looked at her son and explained, "It's so we can blend in, Henry. We still technically look like teenagers, so we need to do what teenagers do. This is what you wanted; to be normal. Come on, we'll be late for class."

Henry gave an exasperated sigh as they grabbed their backpacks and stepped out of the car.

"Henry, wait for me!" She yelled as he ran off after her once he shut the passenger door.

"Sorry, mom," he said as he stopped and waited for her to catch up.

"It's okay," She said with a smile. "We should probably head into the school if we want to get our schedules in time for the bell. Besides, look at the bright side, we've been to high school enough and we've lived enough that we won't have to do any studying."

Both mother and son chuckled at that.

As they opened the doors to the school and made their way to the office, Henry asked, "Remember when you said to not use our powers since we're out in the open?" At his mother's nod he continued, "Well, I'm pretty sure we'd get locked up in the looney bin if we put down our actual ages on the legal forms and we don't exactly have immunization records."

 _Oh, shit. I forgot about that_ Regina thought and turned to her son. "How about we just amend the rule. We only use our compulsion powers when it's absolutely necessary and I would prefer it if I was the one that did it. Or at least inform me once you handled it. You know I don't like surprises. We should also do it with as little violence as possible. Agreed?"

Henry nodded and said, "Agreed."

As he moved to open the office door, his mother stopped him. "If we are going to stay here as long as possible, we shouldn't draw attention to ourselves, okay? I know how much you want to stay here."

"Of course mom. I like to be a loner anyway."

"That's a good thing as far as people like us are concerned." Regina stated.

Henry scoffed at that. "People like us? We aren't people, mom. We're mons—"

"Excuse me. What can I do for you two today?" The woman behind the desk interrupted with a sickeningly sweet smile.

Pushing aside the fact that her son still hates what he is, she went up to the secretary. "Hi. Me and my brother are new and were wondering if we could get our class schedule?"

"Of course. Did you bring the necessary papers to get you two fully registered?" When Regina gave the woman the folder from her backpack, she then asked, "Do you have your immunization and birth records? Those are the only two that are missing."

In response, Regina leaned forward and looked the secretary in the eye. "Look again. I'm sure you have all the records necessary."

The woman's once glazed eyes blinked and looked through the folder again. "Never mind. It seems I missed it. Let me get your schedules going then."

Regina forced a fake smile on her face as she replied, "Great."

The secretary then printed off a schedule for both Regina and Henry and told them to have a good day. When they left the office, Regina felt there were eyes on them, but chose to ignore it. She wasn't going to be paranoid about history repeating itself and instead listened to her son as he said, "Let's see if we have any classes together."

They both pulled out their schedules and looked at them side-by-side.

Henry Mills: Junior Regina Mills: Junior

1st: AP US History 1st: AP US History

2nd: AP Chemistry 2nd: English

3rd: Health 3rd: AP Psychology

4th: English 4th: Health

Lunch Lunch

5th: Creative Writing 5th: AP Chemistry

6th: Spanish 6th: Drawing

7th: AP Calculus 7th: AP Calculus

8th: Physical Education 8th: Physical Education

Regina pointed at their 8th period and sighed, "So much for wanting to not stick out. Come on. Let's get to our first class, sweetheart."

* * *

Robin shot out of his bed and started getting dressed in a frenzied state as soon as he realized he was late. Oversleeping has been a common occurrence with him for a while now since both him and his mother moved to America from London after his father died a few years ago. It seems that neither he nor his mother will ever get over that kind of pain. His mother got worried when all Robin would do was sleep for the first few months of his father's passing. He never forgave her for taking him to a doctor for depression. Robin suspected that now because he is no longer on anti-depressants, he could be going back to his habit of oversleeping.

"Robin!" his mother, Caroline, called out. "You'd better get out the door now or you're going to be late for the bus for your first day of school!"

As soon as she said that, he came running down the stairs at record speed. He flew past her to put a piece of toast in his mouth and then to shove all of his papers into his backpack. His mother came up and handed him a glass of orange juice. "Thanks mom," he said and chugged it down and hurried to the door to shove his shoes on.

"I think we need to do something about you over sleeping," his mother chastised with her arms crossed and a worried look on her face.

"Can't it wait until after school, mum? I don't want to miss the bus," Robin whined.

His mother let out an exasperated huff and kissed his cheek. "Fine. Have a good day at school. Love you."

Robin gave his mother a quick peck on the cheek before he raced to the bus stop just in time for the bus to nearly miss him. He sat down in the last available seat with a grumbled sigh. _If only he had his truck back_ Robin thought. _But no, you idiot. You ended up crashing it into a pole._ Luckily he wouldn't be taking the bus for too long as his car would be fixed up by the end of this week. To pass the time, he went over his schedule again.

Robin Locksley: Junior

1st: AP US History

2nd: Physics

3rd: AP Psychology

4th: Health

Lunch

5th: Creative Writing

6th: Geometry

7th: Music

8th: Physical Education

The bus then stopped at the school and Robin bolted out the door as soon as they opened. Once Robin walked through the front doors of Winston High School, he went to find his friends, John and Graham, before he headed to his AP US History class. When he was on his way to where their lockers were, he happened to notice two new students in the main office. They looked alike, so he assumed siblings. The guy was fairly tall with black hair and of decent build. The girl had the same color of hair and Robin had a feeling that before she turned around to head out of the office that she would be the most beautiful girl he had ever seen. He even believed that the scar she had above her lip made her all the more attractive. He shook his head to snap him out of his gaze and continued walking to find his friends.

"Hey, Robin!" John yelled. He wrapped his arm around his best friend's shoulders and steered him towards Graham.

"How's your truck doing?" Graham asked with a grimace, remembering how it looked wrapped around a pole after Robin ran off after one of his and his ex's arguments.

"I get it back by the end of this week," he said. "How was the rest of your summer?"

"Interesting to say the least," Graham said. "Marian has been hounding us for a week as to why you broke up with her last month when we were at my family's lake house. She also told me to tell you to give her another chance."

Robin groaned. He didn't think that Marian would be pushing him to change his mind about them. She looked like she understood when he told her that he didn't feel the same as he did when they first met during freshman year. "She didn't want to tell me that in person?"

John shrugged. "I guess she thinks that because it came from one of your best friends you'd be more open to that possibility."

Robin was about to respond when the bell rang to signal that it was time for people to get to class. He said bye to his two friends and headed to his first class. Once he walked into class he noticed that the two new kids were sat in the back of the room. For some reason he felt the need to sit near the girl so he sat one row over and one row up so it wasn't too obvious.

* * *

When mother and son walked into their history class, they immediately took a pair of seats at the back of the room so as not to be noticed by anyone. As soon as everyone took their seats, the bell rang and in walked in the teacher.

"Welcome back to another year, students. For those of you who don't already know, my name is Mr. Moretti," the teacher said with enthusiasm that none of the students seemed to share as the majority let out a groan.

"I'm just going to ignore that ungrateful noise and instead focus on what we will be learning today: the entire history behind the US Constitution and the Declaration of Independence." the teacher said as he wrote out both of the documents on the board.

Henry then leaned in and whispered in his mother's ear, "Permission to completely ignore?"

"We still have to pay attention. We haven't been to high school in a while," she whispered back.

"What's going on back there? Miss Mills is it?" Mr. Moretti scolded, making Regina inwardly cringe at being noticed.

Regina put on her best fake smile and said, "Nothing, sir."

"So then if it was nothing, you'd be able to give me the answer to the question I just asked?" Mr. Moretti asked, folding his arms and leaning against the desk with a smirk.

 _I'm not going to rip his throat out. I'm not going to kill him. I'm going to be a good little vampire_ Regina thought as she counted to ten before she answered. "What question, Mr. Moretti? You asked quite a few."

Either the teacher was surprised at her confidence or the fact that she was right in that he did ask multiple questions, Regina didn't know. As soon as his shock wore off, he responded. "Based on a person's well-being back then, would they be a patriot or a loyalist? And why?"

Regina debated for a moment if she should play dumb and not answer, give a summarized version, or just cut to the chase and give him a run for his money by providing the answer in intricate detail. The last choice will most likely get her to be noticed so she said, "I don't know, sir."

Apparently the teacher saw her inner conflict written on my face because he raised his eyebrows and responded, "I'm pretty sure you do know the answer, Miss Mills."

Since Regina was beginning to get a little irritated with being put on the spotlight, she went with the last choice anyway. "Well, the Native Americans were mostly Loyalists because Great Britain had promised them that they could keep their land if they remained loyal to them and also if they won the war. Other Loyalists were mainly wealthy citizens in the Southern Colonies that wanted to keep their statuses as well as their slaves. Ending our association with King George would deplete their high standing as we would most likely not be able to trade things like cotton and tobacco in exchange for manufactured goods and slaves. The Patriots were mostly merchants and farmers who were tired of trying to reconcile with Great Britain. When they didn't receive answers on them wanting to be protected by Britain in exchange for their undying loyalty, the Founding Fathers listed grievances on the Declaration of Independence that detailed all of the wrongdoings of Parliament and the crown. Since Great Britain didn't win, I would say only the Patriots were happy about how things turned out." She took a deep breath and asked, "Are there any other questions you would like me to answer, sir?"

"Uh…no. No, that would be all for today," Mr. Moretti stuttered out. After shaking his head in amazement, he resumed with teaching the lesson.

That familiar feeling of being watched came back, so she looked where it was coming from and saw that it was just a teenage boy. What she found to be most interesting about him besides his handsome facial features was the look of awe on his face. That look on any of the other students felt uncomfortable, but on him it felt like a form of praise. After a few seconds, the boy looked away, seemingly embarrassed at being caught.

* * *

As soon as Regina started talking, Robin became amazed at the sound of her voice. It was silky smooth despite it dripping with irritation. Same with the expression on her face as he started to stare. It didn't need an expert to see that the new girl didn't like the teacher very much. _She has good taste_ he thought since he didn't like Mr. Moretti very much either. He had him for world history last year and he ended up being Robin's least favorite teacher because he was strict; he coddled his favorite students and either ignored or hounded the others. It was nice to see someone who put Mr. Moretti in his place. It was a rarity to have a student answer one of his questions to his satisfaction.

Robin was so out of it, he didn't notice that the new girl had stopped talking until he saw that she was staring at him. _Oh, crap. She's staring_ he thought. He couldn't think of anything to say, so he looked away and turned straight ahead in his chair. Robin tried to stop thinking about how her brown eyes felt like they were staring into his soul and started paying attention to the rest of the lesson.

Once the bell rang, he sprung out of his seat and out the door just in case Regina decided to confront him about staring.

Physics went by in a blur. He spent most of the lecture on all types of kinetic energy thinking about the brunette. He couldn't understand why he found her intriguing when the only thing she did was talk about Patriots and Loyalists.

As soon as he sat down in his psychology class, the same brunette walked in. Before he changed his mind and chickened out, Robin jumped in her way to sit down.

"I apologize for my earlier behavior."

"What behavior?" Regina asked, looking genuinely confused.

"I…uh…um…I stared at you in class. I just wanted to say that I was sorry if I made you feel uncomfortable." She looked at him with a shocked expression mixed with a little confusion. "I'm sorry. Did I say something?"

"Oh! No! It's just not many people apologize for doing something as simple as being caught staring. Trust me, you're literally the first person to tell me sorry for that kind of thing and actually mean it."

Robin smiled. "I'll take that as a compliment, milady."

"You're an interesting guy," Regina said with a laugh.

 _Wow, even her laugh is perfect_ Robin thought.

Regina gestured to the two seats up front. "We should probably take a seat before the bell rings."

As soon as they sat down, the bell rang.

Before the teacher started talking, Robin stuck out his hand. "We haven't been properly introduced. I'm Robin Locksley."

"Regina Mills," she said, shaking his hand.


	2. Chapter 2

_There's something about him_ Regina thought as she only half listened to the teacher talk about a research project we were supposed to start today. The teacher was going to set them up into pairs and they could decide what person they wanted to research. Regina was barely paying any attention when she heard she would be pairing with Robin. She was too busy debating whether or not she wanted to be friends with him. Regina couldn't decide between hate or fear at the feelings that he's unknowingly making her feel. She felt like Robin was staring into her soul. The last time she felt like this was when she met the man she believed was her true love…Daniel.

" _Regina!" her mother, Cora, yelled from her husband's study._

 _As soon as she heard her mother's impatient voice, Regina ran at full speed so as not to make her angrier than she already was._

" _Yes, ma'am?" she asked, meeting her mother's gaze. Regina learned early on to make eye contact, even when she's terrified of her._ 'It shows you're not stupid' _her mother would always tell her._

" _We are going to be having soldiers come stay with us, so I would want you to make up all of the guest rooms for their stay and notify the cook that we'll be having more mouths to feed tonight. I suggest you do what I say quickly, they'll be here any minute from their long journey from New York."_

 _Regina bowed her head. "Yes, ma'am."_

 _She walked out the door and did as she was told. Making her mother angry has never been a good thing to do. It was her mother's temper that her "father", Leo, was afraid of that made him allow Regina to stay in the household. Leo despised Regina because she reminded him of his wife's infidelity. Apparently, her mother met someone intriguing one night and according to her mother, was a mistake along with what came of it. Cora just loved to remind Regina that she was a mistake._

 _Cora made a point to not feel anything for her bastard of a daughter. The only reason why she even kept her daughter was so she could be free labor. Regina was even treated like a slave, including receiving the same punishments. She couldn't even count the number of lash marks she currently had on her back._

 _Regina remembered the first lashing she had ever gotten when she was seven. She had snuck out the night before to learn how to read and write from some children in town. She was so tired that she didn't even wake up when her mother called. That was the one and only time that Regina had cried during her punishments. Cora made a point to tell her daughter that showing emotions was weakness and to never do it again or she'd receive an even worse punishment. After that day, she never went into town again. She made it a mission to teach herself instead._

 _Late at night, Regina would rack her brain to see if Cora even had a kind bone in her body, but she wouldn't remember any no matter how hard she tried. The words 'I love you' or 'I'm proud of you' has never left that woman's mouth. Regina would then close her eyes and dream of what her life would be like if she had a kind and loving mother that would hold her close when she was scared and would even kiss her goodnight. Having those dreams were the only thing that prevented her from breaking into Leo's gun safe and putting herself out of her misery. She hated her life that much. On the days that Cora would beat her were the only days she even considered breaking into the safe. Either she didn't have the courage to do it, or she was still holding on to hope for a better future._

 _Once she was done setting up all twenty rooms, she headed down to the kitchen to inform the cook, Granny as she likes to be called, that there was a change in the number of mouths to feed for the foreseeable future._

" _Ugh. Why can't the war end already? It's making people miserable both on the battlefield and at home." Granny complained as she started peeling the potatoes for tonight's stew. It was nearing Christmas and the soldiers would be thankful for the warm meal._ At least they should be _Granny thought._

" _Did you need any help, Granny?" Regina asked, eager to help out but mostly to avoid her monster of a mother._

 _Granny looked at her with sadness in her eyes. "I'm sorry, child. Your mother didn't give you a job in the kitchen, otherwise I would let you. I don't think it would be in your best interest to make her mad. Don't you think?"_

 _Regina shook her head sadly and walked out of the kitchen, presumably to find her mother._

 _Granny felt absolutely horrible about what the fifteen year old girl had to go through. It was no secret that Cora hated her daughter. Granny didn't think it was right to treat the child the way she was treated. Even though it was Cora's mistake, she still blamed it on her bastard of a daughter. Granny knew she would never treat her own flesh in blood like that, and she hadn't. The only thing that Granny did wrong in raising her daughter was allow her ex-husband to be around her. Luckily, her granddaughter, Ruby, didn't follow in her mother's footsteps. In fact, Ruby wanted to live with her grandmother instead._

 _The terms of living with her Granny was that she had to work for Cora. That was the only negative side. Her granddaughter claimed that as a whole, it was better than living with her mother. Ruby could tolerate that foul woman much better than she could. One day, she had accidentally walked in on Cora punishing Regina for getting mud on her dress when she went out to fetch the clothing that Cora's personal seamstress had sewn for her. Granny was ready to give the heartless woman a piece of her mind, but Ruby stopped her saying that she wouldn't be surprised if their mistress went so far as to kill them for interfering in disciplining her own child._

 _XXXXXX_

 _All of the soldiers came at about less than an hour after Regina left the kitchen. Once all of them were seated and started eating, she left to go to her "room" by the kitchen. All it had was a small mattress and a tiny dresser with a candle on it. Inside the dresser were some clothes, pieces of paper and a couple of pencils._

 _When it was time for everyone to go to bed, Regina would stay awake either teaching herself how to read and write, or drawing. Every slave and indentured servant in the household has told her that she was spectacular at drawing. She never really knew how she came to do it. She just picked up a pencil and paper one day when her parents were in town and started to draw. She would draw to get her mind off of things like her mother or her father. Regina knew that if either of her parents knew what she was doing, they would severely punish her for it._

 _When it came to punishments, she didn't know who was worse. Both gave out physical and emotional abuse. Her mother would give out insults and on top of that, she gave her enough lashes to have her bleeding for hours. Her father would yell at her and smack her around. Regina was sick and tired of being treated that way, but she knew that if she did something about it she would be severely punished for it. She stayed out of fear more than anything else._

 _Once it neared the time for the end of dinner, she got up and headed to the dining room. When she turned a corner she ended up running into someone._

 _Regina got up immediately and bowed saying, "My apologies sir. I wasn't watching where I was going."_

" _Why would you assume it was your fault? It's just as much as my fault as it is yours."_

 _She looked up to see that it was one of the soldiers that would take up residence in their home. He looked to be around her age and that was frightening. Whoever created the conscription laws were barbaric to allow a boy who wasn't even a man yet fight a man's battle. He still had remnants of a baby face with light brown hair and hazel eyes. Regina knew she had to respond but she couldn't stop staring into his eyes. She also knew that he was having the same problem._

" _I…" they said at the same time._

" _What the hell is going on here?!" Cora demanded as she walked into the hall._

" _We accidentally ran into each other at the corner, ma'am," Regina blurted out, afraid she would be punished if she lied._

 _Cora looked at her with a cold stare, as if she were debating on whether or not she should punish her daughter._

 _Cora looked at the boy and said, "My maids are clumsy at times. Follow me, Regina."_

 _Regina inwardly cringed. She knew that tone. She just hoped that the punishment won't be as bad as it normally is. Her back still hadn't fully healed yet from the last time. She took one more look at the boy soldier and followed her mother. What she didn't know was that when she turned around, he had a pained look on his face, like he somehow knew where they were going._

Regina snaps back into the present when Robin comes back with a slip of paper.

"Are you okay?" he asks her with huge concern etched in his deep blue eyes. She just nods because she doesn't really trust her voice at that moment considering where she was before. Getting lost in her own memories.

He searches her brown eyes for even a hint of a lie. When he found none, he handed her the slip of paper.

"Sigmund Freud? Really?"

"Sorry," Robin said. "Although I don't think we can switch."

"No, it's not that. It's just, I didn't think that you would choose him for our project."

"No offense, milady," he said as he sat back down. "But I don't think you know me. We just formally introduced each other not ten minutes ago."

Nodding her head, she responded. "You're right. I don't know you. But in all consideration, Robin, you don't know me either."

Robin smirked at that. "I think I know more about you than you do me." At Regina's raised eyebrow, he continued. "You don't like attention, which was made obvious in history class earlier today. That, and you are smart but don't want people to know it. That could either mean you don't like attention, or your intelligence wasn't appreciated enough growing up. All of that points to the fact that you sit in the back of the classroom, to avoid people. Also, I would like to point out that you only sat up here with me is because I asked you to. Which means you're polite enough to be nice to me even though I can tell you're uncomfortable right now up front. Am I right?"

 _Damn. Was I really that obvious?_ She thought. Apparently this guy can knock down her walls without her even realizing it. _What is he doing to me?_ She turned her shocked expression to unemotional and cold. She was going to try like hell to make sure her guard wasn't down again.

"I'm gonna take your silence as a yes. And don't worry. I'm not going to press further, not if you don't want me to. We should probably follow the rest of the students to the library so we can get started."

 _Not pressing boundaries. Another good quality about him._

Once they were situated by a couple of computers, Robin turns to her. "Did you want to do the research and I'll put it together in a presentation? Or something different? As long as it doesn't involve research, I suck at it."

Regina started laughing at him. Robin frowned. "What? Did I say something?"

"Like I said earlier, you're interesting," she said, still laughing. "Cuz now I know your ulterior motive. Typically in my experience, men just want to somehow use my intelligence to get into my pants. But you? You're different. You'd rather risk doing something you're comfortable with, leading to the possibility of me not being impressed than you sucking it up and doing most of the work just so I would stick around, intrigued for more of your smart qualities. I can tell you're confident that I would stay because you're admitting you have weaknesses. Since I assume you wear your heart on your sleeve and you're not afraid to say 'I'm sorry', I'm gonna have to say you were either raised right, or you lost a loved one but someone told you it was okay to care. And as we all know, girls are more sympathetic to guys who have a sensitive side. Am I right?"

Robin looked a little shocked to say the least. _Poor guy_ Regina thought. _But that's what he gets for psychoanalyzing me first._ "I'm gonna take your silence as a yes. And before you say anything, I won't press further. I'm not the type to be nosey. I'll do the research and as an added bonus, I'll even stick around."

Both of them smiled at each other.

"Did I say something upsetting? If I did, I apologize—"

"No! It's just that the sensitive side was how I got my ex-girlfriend. My father died just before we moved here and she was sympathetic since she lost her mother a few years previous." He admitted sheepishly.

She gave him a sad smile. "I'm sorry. I've lost people too. More than I care to admit." He gave her a nod of thanks. "Anyway, we should probably get started or we'll have to finish this on our own time."

 _Why did I say that?_ Regina thought as she logged onto the computer. _I guess I should stop fighting to keep my wall down. At least for now._

* * *

Marian was in a bad mood. She woke up late, didn't have enough time to eat breakfast or put on makeup. That's a crisis in any woman's book. The only bright side to her morning was that she had the good sense the night before to place all of her school work in her backpack so she wouldn't have to in the morning.

As she placed her car in park, she noticed two new kids stepping out of a really nice Mercedes. This town was small enough to the point where everybody knows everybody, so Marian was pretty sure she had never seen them before. Intrigued, she followed them to the main office. Both of them looked a lot alike. She thought the guy was pretty cute, but she would be lying if she said she wasn't envious of the girl's beautiful complexion. Looking at them more thoroughly, she deduced that they were of Latin descent or similar. She was about to go in and snoop on them, but then she saw Robin. Apparently he was also intrigued by the new students as well.

She hasn't seen him since he stupidly broke up with her a month ago. The day after she had half expected him to call and meet up to tell her he was stupid about what he said the day before, but it never came. He had erased her from his life completely. Marian assumed that since he never answered his phone when he called, not even to tell her to stop calling.

Marian desperately wanted to walk up to Robin and talk to him, but she couldn't make her feet move. Either she didn't know what to say or she was still too hurt to talk to him. Before she could make up her mind, the bell rang signaling that it was time to head to class. Trying to reign in her tears, she grudgingly made her way to class. As she was coming up to the classroom door, she saw Robin again opening that very same door.

When she got to school she thought she could get through the day knowing Robin would be around, but as she was confronted with reality, she realized she couldn't do it. She high-tailed it into the nearest girls' bathroom and ran into the first stall.

Normally she deemed school as important as breathing, but today she wasn't all too concerned about missing the first day of class. She stayed in the bathroom for almost three periods crying before she decided to come out. Marian knew deep down that her being emotional was ridiculous; she couldn't help it. Her and Robin were together for years with no problems, very few arguments and neither of them were distant. She was finally ready to find Robin and demand some answers.

As she walked passed the library, two people had caught her eye. Robin and the new girl were sitting next to computers laughing and smiling at each other. Looking closely at Robin's face, Marian could see that he had a look of awe and wonder bordering on love. Thinking back, she noticed that he never looked at her like that when they were dating. _Who is this girl? I have to know_ she thought. On the outside the new girl seemed innocent and uncomfortable, but Marian could see that there was something different about her. Whether or not that something was bad, she was going to find out. _If this girl isn't who she says she is,_ Marian vows. _I'll make sure she stays as far away from Robin._

The next time Marian sees the new girl and Robin is physical education, which is the last class of the day. She decides that she's going to confront the new girl in the locker rooms when they go to change into their uniforms. That way Marian can gain the upper hand and also have some time alone to fully assess the new girl out. It'll seem like an innocent encounter, but in reality, she's planning on making sure that she stays away from Robin. As she stood in line to pick up their gym clothes, Marian kept telling herself that the reason she's doing this is to protect Robin and not so that she can get him back.

Once she gets her clothes, she sees that the new girl barely walked into the girls' locker room. _Perfect_ she thought as she followed her.

In order to catch her off guard, Marian moved fast and stepped in front of her, preventing her from moving forward.

"Hello, my name is Marian. What's yours?" Marian said, trying to be polite.

The only response she got from the new girl was a raised eyebrow and a clipped "Regina" as a greeting, so she tried a new approach.

"How are you liking the school? Make any friends yet?" she asked in what she hoped was in a sincere tone.

The look on Regina's face showed utter annoyance, which seemed like she saw right through Marian's façade. She folded her arms across her chest and replied, "Why do you care? You don't seem to be the kind of person that would genuinely care about me. Which was made obvious by your failed attempt at sounding sincere. What do you want?"

Marian huffed in exasperation. "Fine. You saw right through me. In all honesty, I don't care how you do at this school, just as long as you stay away from Robin. I don't want you to be a bad influence on him. I will try to be polite if you do as I say. I don't want to have to threaten you now do I?"

Regina's expression turned from an annoyed frown to an amused smirk. "You're the ex-girlfriend aren't you? Robin told me about you, which is why I'm going to have to say no to staying away from him. I don't take kindly to being told what to do or to being threatened. Which is why I'm going to make my own promise to you." She leaned in forward and continued with barely contained anger. "If you do threaten me, I'll do way worse to you. Leave me alone." With a plastered fake smile, Regina said her goodbye and went to go change.

Believing Regina's threat to be as fake as her smile, Marian was going to go through with her threat. She will make sure that Robin falls in love with her again if it's the last thing she does.


	3. Chapter 3

A/N: New chapter! I hope you enjoy!

Disclaimer: I don't own anything

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Regina's hands were shaking with rage as she quickly went to the back of the locker room to change. She was both baffled and pissed at the girl's behavior. _Why do teenagers this day in age behave like that? People were more respectful when I was a child. God, how I wish I could get rid of her._ The more she tried to calm herself down, the more violent her hands were shaking.

She had just took her shirt off when she felt her canines slip down. "Shit!" Regina muttered so no one would be able to hear. She leaned forward against the wall with her hands above her head.

In order to prevent her from losing control, Regina took several deep breaths and starting thinking of positive things instead of wanting to rip Marian's throat out. The only thought that came to mind was her son. She knew that losing control after trying so hard for the past decade after her last slip up would disappoint Henry immensely. Especially since he really wants to stay where they were born. She couldn't have that. Regina knew she couldn't count on both hands how many times she has slipped up and been consumed by the darkness. Just with that thought, she started crying.

 _How is it that my son still looks up to me after all I've done? I shouldn't have been turned into a vampire._ Ever since she got turned she's been having difficulty controlling herself when feeling anger. That's when she snaps and loses control if her son isn't around to keep her grounded. Regina literally wouldn't know what to do if she lost Henry. It wasn't hard to figure out that her son was her humanity. Her son, the light of her life and who she would do and give up anything for.

After a few more deep breaths, her fangs disappeared and her hands stopped shaking. When she was sure that she was completely calm, she finished changing when she was sure no one was around. It wasn't that she was shy, she really wasn't. From dealing with her mother's abuse for years, the scars on her back didn't go away after she was turned into a vampire. Regina just didn't want to deal with the stares. She was both okay with and hated that she still had the scars. Part of her wanted to forget what her mother did to her, but the other part was proud of how she was able to be strong and survive.

Regina was too distracted with remaining calm that she didn't notice someone staring as she was getting dressed. If she did notice, Regina wouldn't be able to contain her anger again at the girl who's wanting to call herself Robin's girlfriend.

* * *

Marian was annoyed that the new girl got to say the last words to their argument. It wasn't fair either. Seeing as Regina was heading in the direction of the back of the locker room which housed the showers, she knew that it would be more than easy to back her into a corner. Marian would have the advantage as Regina wouldn't have anywhere to go.

As she neared where Regina was changing, she heard heavy breathing and muttering that sounded like swearing. Rounding the corner, she noticed the new girl leaning heavily against the wall in just a sports bra and pants. The one thing that Marian noticed was the vertical scarring all over the girl's back. Some looked smooth and faint, but the others were bumpy and red and scary looking. Seeing the scars had Marian realizing that she was right in that the new girl had a dangerous past, one that she would do anything to prevent Robin from getting involved in. Marks like that lead to being damaged and broken. She would bet anything that Regina also had emotional problems on top of that.

Changing her mind, she decided on having another chat with her later. She walked out of the locker room to wait for the teacher to tell them what they'll be doing today.

Seeing the boy that was with Regina sitting alone on the other side of the gymnasium, Marian decided to talk to him. It could be seen as an innocent gesture, but in reality she knew that it would get a rise out of Regina. Then she could make a point in telling her that that's how she feels when Robin talks to her. Hopefully that would get her to leave her boyfriend alone, ex or otherwise.

"Hey," she said when she plopped down beside the boy.

He looked like he didn't really know what to say so he just went with "Hi."

"I take it that you're new? We don't really get any new people here very often. It's a consequence of a small town." Marian said with a small laugh. "What's your name? Mine's Marian."

From the look on his face, it seems that he wasn't in the mood to talk. Hopefully she'll get him to warm up for her plan of making Regina angry. For now, she just sat there waiting for him to talk.

A few minutes passed when he finally spoke. "Henry."

Marian scrunched up her face in confusion. "Huh? You don't get very many Henrys nowadays." He ended up giving her an annoyed look. "Don't get me wrong, Henry is a nice name, it's just not very common."

Henry's look of annoyance got replaced by understanding. "Yeah, well I was named after my grandfather. Or so I was told since I've never met the man."

"Henry," a new voice interrupted.

Both of them looked up to see Regina. Marian was neither disappointed nor pleased with the interruption. The look on her face wasn't what she'd hoped since it was irritation and not full blown rage like Marian was wanting.

"Hi, Reny," Henry simply said with a loving smile on his face.

Regina's response was a raised eyebrow. "That's what you've come up with?"

He shrugged. "What? It fits."

Regina's face broke out in a full smile. She shook her head and said, "Fine."

As Henry finished his fist bump, Robin decided to get the confrontation with Marian over with.

Robin walked over and said warmly, "Hello, Regina." And then greeted Marian with a curt nod and a small smile.

As Regina was about to say 'hi' to Robin, Marian interrupted with a too wide smile and an enthusiastic "Robin!"

"Hello, Marian," Robin said, clearly uncomfortable, not that his ex-girlfriend noticed. She never did, especially when it came to feelings. The only thing that she didn't ignore was her own feelings. Not to be mean, but she could be a little bit shallow when it comes to that. He loved her once upon a time, but now he wasn't _in_ love with her anymore. He just hoped that she could see that and respect that and leave him alone.

Getting in his face, she replied, "Can we talk?"

Robin was about to tell her they could later, but the teacher decided it was time to tell them what sport they would be playing at that moment, which he was grateful for. It gave him more time to come up with a way to tell her to not bother him anymore.

"Ladies and Gents, gather around," the teacher waited as the students did as they were told before he continued. "Since it's such a beautiful day outside, I've decided to let you guys enjoy America's favorite pastime: Baseball. All of the equipment is already outside, so just form two teams and have fun."

With that, the students all filed outside. Marian hoped she could drag Robin to the back of the crowd, but to her dismay he was currently walking with Regina and Henry.

* * *

Playing baseball had been okay since it wasn't a challenge for mother and son to hide their immense strength. They hid it by playing poorly, which was fine by them. It was easier to stand out as the people who suck at sports than having others hound them asking how they can play sports so well.

Regina had just finished changing and was going to find her son by her car when she heard Robin's voice from behind her. "Regina!"

She stopped and waited for him to catch up with her. When he did, she smiled at him. "Hey, Robin. What's up?"

He looked at her like he was trying to find the courage to tell her something. "Um… I was wondering if—Would you mind accompanying me to the town's annual carnival tonight? I-I know it's short notice, but I think it would be fun to show you some of the town since you're new and all."

Regina was surprised that he would ask her out somewhere since they had just met today in first period. Some part of her wanted to say 'yes', but the other part knew she shouldn't get attached in any way since her and her son had to leave before it would be obvious that they don't age. If she did get attached to Robin, she knew that it could potentially break her heart having to leave him behind. From experience it was easier to stay away from people than to form relationships with them knowing that they would grow old and die while she would stay the same age forever.

Making a decision, she looked into his eyes and said, "I guess it wouldn't hurt to get to know the town."

"Really?" Robin said. When she nodded, he looked like a kid hopped up on sugar. "Cool! Um, small problem though. Would you be opposed to driving?"

"I guess. Do I want to know why?"

With a sheepish look on his face, he replied. "My truck is currently going through some repairs right now. I should have it back by the end of the week."

"It's really no problem. Would you mind if I bring Henry along? If he wants to go, that is."

"Sure, if he wants. He seems like a cool guy. Um, I should probably give you my address," Robin said, pulling out a piece of paper to write on. "The carnival starts at six, so you can pick me up around then if you like. My number's on there as well if you plan on coming earlier or later."

"Okay, I'll see you at six," Regina said.

"See you then," Robin said as he walked off.

Regina knew that he had already gotten under her skin simply by watching her. _Hopefully this decision doesn't leave me as broken as the last time_ she thought as she headed to her car.

 _Regina hoped the war would end. That way her Daniel could come home to her so they could be a family away from her dictator of a mother. She feels like she should love her since she's her mother, but she can't help but hate her for all the pain she's put her daughter through. She sometimes wished that her and her mother could trade places so she could see for herself how much pain Regina's been in._

 _She found out from Granny and Ruby that she was pregnant. Regina learned a while ago that they were werewolves, which was how they found out she was carrying a baby. Their supernatural abilities were confusing, but she didn't question how they knew. The only thing she could think about was how to tell her mother. Surely her mother would make her get rid of it or if she was in a cruel mood, she could use her witch powers to get rid of it herself. That possibility made her not want to tell her even more. She didn't know how witchcraft worked, but she did know that it would be a matter of time before Cora found out._

 _The next morning after she found out she was carrying Daniel's child, her mother and Leo called her into the study. Regina wondered what for since Leo and Cora have never called her into the study together._

 _When Regina walked in, her mother and Leo were hunched over looking at some papers on the desk. She made herself known by clearing her throat and asking, "You asked for me, mother?"_

 _Her mother looked up and had a sly smirk plastered on her face that made Regina very worried about what Cora wanted from her._

" _Regina, go poor us some tea and sit down. We have something to discuss with you."_

 _Regina bowed her head and did as she was told. Once she had given her parents their tea and sat down in front of them, Cora started speaking._

" _We know about your dalliance with one of the soldiers that housed with us during the holiday. Which is why we see fit to tell you of the unfortunate news." Cora moved from behind the desk to kneel in front of her daughter and put her hand on her cheek almost lovingly. "Regina, dear, I'm sorry but that soldier was wounded in battle and didn't make it."_

 _Regina couldn't breathe. Part of her didn't want to believe her mother, but the other part noticed how her mother had behaved. Cora seemed like she was wanting to talk about her daughter's mistake. She didn't look like she was just admitting false facts to see how she would respond for having a relationship with a soldier._

 _Regina moved quickly away from her mother in anger coupled with denial. "You're lying, mother."_

 _Cora sighed. "No matter how much I wish I could lie about this just to spite your stupidity, I can assure you my child, I am not lying to you." Moving away from her daughter, she continued speaking. "I did lie about something though. I will remark on your stupidity for getting yourself in trouble, in every sense of the word."_

 _Regina didn't know what to say. "Mother, I—"_

" _Do not!" Cora practically screamed. "You went and got yourself a child inside you! How could you be this stupid, dear?!"_

 _Leo chose that time to speak. "Your mother and I aren't going to make you get rid of it."_

 _Regina was truly shocked. "Why?"_

" _It'll benefit us as well," Leo shrugged. "I'd be a fool to pass on free labor. When the child is old enough, of course. Are we in an agreement?"_

 _Clenching her fists in anger, Regina had enough composure to let out a 'yes'._

 _After that she gained permission to retire to bed for the evening. She made it all the way to her living space before she broke down completely. She didn't want her baby to grow up like she did, but she didn't have a choice as far as her mother and Leo was concerned. They were powerful members of the community and coupled with their wealth, they were untouchable. She wouldn't be able to change their minds even if she begged and pleaded. Her child was assigned her same fate and there was nothing she could do._

Regina snapped out of her memories as soon as she saw her son leaning against her car. Reflecting on that conversation between her, Cora and Leo, she found herself smiling. She got her baby out of that hellhole and gave him a better life. She wasn't expecting the price to be cursed with vampirism, but Regina knew that she would do it all over again for her son.

"Hey, mom. What were you thinking about?" Henry asked when his mother approached.

Regina smiled and cupped her son's cheek affectionately. "Just remembering when I found out I was going to have you. Come on, let's go home."

They both got in the car and drove to their apartment, unaware that someone was watching them.

* * *

A/N: The name that Henry calls Regina means 'mom' in a different language in case anyone was confused. As to the person who's watching them, who do you think it is?


	4. Chapter 4

Here is another update!

Oh and for who thought it was Marian watching them, guess again! It is someone we've seen on the show though. Just not in the story quite yet.

Enjoy the chapter!

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"Mom, I'm home!" Robin yelled as he walked through the front door.

"I'm in the kitchen!" she yelled back.

Robin groaned. His mother had gone through certain phases over the years. Some of them weren't bad, like baking or sewing; others were damn near terrifying, like her current phase. His mother is currently experimenting with exotic foods. Some of the meals his mom made were okay, but the more exotic she got, the worse it tasted. Like the good son he was, he tried to be supportive but his mother saw right through him most of the time.

"Do I want to know what you're making this time, mom?" he asked with caution present in his tone.

His mother looked up from what was apparently a rolled up piece of dough. "I'll have you know that I have decided to stop experimenting. I'm going back to baking." Pointing her sticky finger at her son she continued. "Don't you dare say 'Thank goodness'."

Smiling, he put his arms around his mother. "I was going to say 'thank you'. Now I have more time to improve my cooking skills. And before you say anything else, I'm fine."

Caroline turned to face her son. "I just worry about you sometimes."

"My depression isn't back if that's what you're implying, mom. I was just nervous about the first day of school and couldn't sleep because of it. It was the prospect of seeing Marian again that brought it on." Robin explained.

Studying her son's face, she exclaimed. "Either you're never seeing that girl again or you found someone else that you've set your eyes on."

Robin turned beet red. "Mom…"

His mother never failed to embarrass him even if it was with good intentions. His friends always say that they hate it when their mothers pry into their lives. Robin finds it endearing and sweet. His mom has never pressed when he didn't want to talk, and for that, he's grateful. It didn't stop him from producing a reaction out of him.

"What, I can't be happy that my son is finally getting over Marian? What's the girl's name?"

With raised eyebrows he looked at his mom. "I know you never liked Marian, mom."

"You're right, I never did. She never fully appreciated you. So, you met someone?"

With a smile, Robin replied. "I did meet someone who's new to town though. Her name's Regina."

Caroline gasped. "Regina, huh? Is she as pretty as her name?"

Robin's face turned red again. "Mom…"

"I'm going to take that as a yes." She patted Robin on the back. "Oh, Johnny's getting antsy in the backyard. Be a dear and take him for a walk."

While his mom when back to baking, he went out the back door to greet his golden retriever puppy. Johnny came from the dog that Robin went to when he was diagnosed with depression. It seemed that puppy therapy works wonders. After a while of going there, he asked the manager if he could work there. The manager didn't see a problem with it, so he allowed it. When he goes to work, all of the animals help him ignore his problems temporarily. He feels peace and tranquility when he goes to work, like nothing and no one else matters.

"Hey, buddy," Robin exclaimed as the puppy comes into view, panting and wagging his tail. He clipped the leash to his collar and said, "Let's go for a walk."

Both man and dog went around the side of the house and through the side gate. Robin was a person who was a creature of habit. He walked Johnny the same route every other day. Despite it benefiting his dog with exercise, he enjoys the time to think. He normally thinks about the usual things like school and dealing with Marian's behavior, but this time he spent his time thinking about another brunette. She was interesting and mysterious and he found himself being drawn to that waiting to see more of her qualities. He found himself equally surprised and impressed at how she correctly analyzed him that morning. Anyone he's met has said that he was rarely an open book. It seemed easy to Regina to see right through him. Almost as easy as being able to read her; her eyes gave away everything. Even the pained look she briefly showed when he mentioned someone not appreciating her.

He was so engrossed in his thoughts that he didn't notice someone calling his name. "Robin!"

He turned around and immediately groaned. "Marian."

"We never talked," she said, referring to when they got interrupted during gym class.

Before he responded, he looked down at Johnny walking around and sniffing the grass, totally oblivious to the current conversation. _Lucky bastard_ he thought. "That's because I don't have anything to say to you. I'm not gonna change my mind about the breakup. If that's why you're here, then I'm going to take Johnny home."

As Robin turned to walk away, Marian stepped in his path again. "That's not why I wanted to talk to you during gym class. I wanted to talk about the new girl."

Crossing his arms so as not to outwardly show his anger, he replied. "Regina? Why in the bloody hell would you want to talk about her?"

"I talked to Regina in the locker room today," she said cautiously. Robin opened his mouth to speak, most likely to yell at her again, but she stopped him. "Before you say anything, I just told her not to hurt you. She assured me that she wouldn't and went to the back of the locker room to change."

Robin's expression turned from anger to confusion. "Why should that concern me?"

"Well, I was going to apologize for being a little threatening when I asked her not to hurt you. When I followed her I saw that she was leaning against the wall trying to calm heavy breathing. It sounded like a panic attack."

Robin was more confused than ever. Knowing Marian, she would tell him some lie about how Regina's some serial killer and to stay away from her. He didn't expect her to tell the truth, or her version of it anyway. Robin said as much out loud.

"Look, I'm not going to tell you that she's some deranged serial killer, Robin. I'm telling you that I think she's damaged…and to be cautious around her. I wasn't paying much concern for her heavy breathing. She has scars all over her back, Robin. A lot of them were the red and jagged ones. I also noticed that she was shaking with rage from our conversation. I will bet everything in my savings account for college that she has anger management issues. I'm not going to be the selfish bitch of an ex-girlfriend and make you stay away from her, but I am telling you to be careful around her. I don't like how I'm getting bad feelings every time I'm around her. I really hope you take what I had to say to heart. Goodbye, Robin."

And with that, Marian walked off without another word or a glance back, leaving Robin to ponder if what she said had been complete bullshit or if some part of what she said had held some truth.

What Robin had never liked was people blindly throwing judgement towards someone based on gossip which was just plain bullying. No matter how mean Marian could get, she always had some kind of reason besides 'they dress funny' or 'they never talk; must be a mute' for hating someone. Deciding to walk home and think of a plan on the way, he got Johnny's attention by tugging gently on his leash so they could go back. Once he got home and put his dog on his leash outside, he thought up something solid that he could do. His plan wasn't to completely ignore the information that was given, but to come out and tell Regina about it and see what she says. He hasn't known her for very long, but he can somehow tell that Regina's not going to hurt him.

* * *

When mother and son first moved to town, they were lucky to find an apartment without using their compulsion powers. Luckily it wasn't very far from the high school; it was only about five minutes away by car. Looking around on the way back to the apartment, Regina noticed that a lot of things were different than when she last lived here. In all honesty, she wasn't surprised. It's been almost two hundred and fifty years. What would be surprising is if things hadn't changed at all. The only thing that didn't really change is the street names and the forest nearby.

"There's a carnival going on tonight, if you want to go," Regina said to Henry.

With a confused look on his face he said, "Carnival? Why would we go to one of those? I thought we were trying to be as invisible as possible."

"I figured it would be nice to see how much this town has changed."

Turning in the passenger seat, Henry assessed his mother. She seemed to be getting happier as the day has been going on. He was confused considering she hated the idea of coming back to the town that literally gave her hell. He practically had to drag her here kicking and screaming. His mother had mentioned her parents a few times over the past couple hundred years, but from the little she said, he was kinda glad that his grandparents died before he met them. If they were alive, he knew he wouldn't be able to control his rage around them. He normally wasn't a violent person, but he wouldn't care if it meant getting rid of the two people that his mother hated the most.

"Don't," his mother suddenly said, snapping Henry from his thoughts.

Looking in her eyes briefly, he asked, "Don't what?"

"I know that look. I don't want you thinking about your grandparents like that. You're a good person, Henry."

"I know," he sighed. "It doesn't stop me from wanting to hurt them for what they did to us, mainly what they did to you."

"It was almost two hundred and forty years ago, Henry. That problem is long behind us," Regina said.

Regina hated it when her son thought like that. It's dangerous for a good person to think those things and also for a vampire to do that. Since Henry was both, she didn't want to risk him turning into her. He's had enough pain and heartbreak to last quite a few lifetimes; so has she. The only difference is that she didn't know what was happening to her. The man that turned her just gave her his blood and left without bothering to tell Regina what she would become. She was lucky that she managed to hold it together so she could raise her son. After everything her parents took from her, she wasn't going to let raising Henry be the last thing.

During that brief silence, Regina finished the rest of the way home.

Regina had to wait a few hours until she could pick up Robin, so she decided to do some errands to stay busy. She didn't have any homework, so she put her bag in her room. Underneath her bed she grabbed a decent sized cooler. She was going to have to stock up on blood bags since the supply they had to tide them over was almost gone. She didn't like stealing the very thing that could save someone's life, but she knew it was better than feeding off humans. Blood from the source is addicting and she hadn't done it since before blood bags were invented. She wasn't going to be doing that anytime soon, considering she didn't want to be lost to the darkness, so stealing it is.

Once she was safely in and out of the hospital, Regina's next task was unpacking all of the boxes. Despite needing to move anyway in the next ten years so as not to arise suspicion, she knew it wouldn't feel like a home with all these boxes. Henry was even worse than she is. He unpacked all of his things the night before.

She briefly wondered was Robin was like. _Damn it_ she thought. Apparently she couldn't go a few hours without thinking about him. _I got it bad_ she groaned inwardly. Looking at the clock, she realized it was time to pick Robin up. She said goodbye to Henry and walked out the door.

It didn't take her very long to find his house. Pulling up against the curb, she noticed it was a normal two-story house with a yard and a fence with a sign that said 'WARNING: BEWARE OF DOG'. She walked up to the front door and hesitantly knocked. A few seconds later a middle-aged woman with dirty blonde hair answered the door.

"Hi," Regina said, awkwardly. "Is Robin here?"

The woman, presumably Robin's mother, instantly smiled. "You must be Regina?"

At Regina's nod, the woman opened the door all the way. "Robin? Regina's here!"

"Coming!" he yelled from somewhere in the house. A few seconds later he rounded the corner and came to the doorway. "You're early."

"I hadn't realized."

"Well, my mother and I were about to have some tea before I left. You should have some," Robin said and stepped aside, presumably to let her inside.

Looking down at the doorway, Regina cursed internally. Without a direct invitation straight from the human's mouth, vampires couldn't enter. A brief gesture, while an open invitation, didn't count. "I wouldn't want to impose," she finally said.

"Nonsense." Robin looked at her as if she were crazy. "My mother and I both want you here. Come in, please?"

Regina smiled. Since it was a direct invitation she could now enter.

Once she crossed the threshold, Robin asked teasingly, "You just have to be difficult, don't you?"

"Maybe," she said, teasing back, covering up the real reason why she couldn't come in.

They walked the rest of the way to the kitchen in silence.

Having tea with Robin's mother (whose name she found out was Caroline) wasn't bad at all. Sure she teased her son nonstop, but it was playful and not overbearing. After spending a few minutes with Mrs. Locksley she can already tell that she would've given anything to have her as a mother rather than Cora. Most of what they talked about was interests and hobbies. Caroline was understanding when she didn't really want to talk about her childhood or family.

When the time came his mother said her goodbyes to the two of them as they got in Regina's car. Robin's directions to the carnival led them to the clearing in front of the forest of trees. Getting out of the car, they purchased a handful of tickets and started to look around.

"So what do you wanna do first?" Robin asked, wagging his tickets in the air.

"Uh…" Regina looked down in embarrassment. "I've never really been to a carnival before. Or a state fair. Henry and I did go to an amusement park though."

Robin looked appalled. It would've been funny if not for his serious tone. "Well, milady I guess I'm gonna have to teach you what fun is."

Regina couldn't help but chuckle. "Seriously? And what's with the 'milady' if I may ask?"

"Yes, seriously. And the 'milady' is just a nickname I find fitting for you. Don't worry, I haven't called anyone else that. Only you will have the pleasure of my charms."

This time she burst out laughing. "Oh, wow! I meant what I said this morning, you are different."

"Thank you," he said smugly. He took her hand and continued. "First things first, we're going to be doing some carnival games. Come on."

He dragged her one of the booths. The first thing she noticed was several target boards on the back wall. She was about to ask him what the game was supposed to be when the person in charge of the booth brought out a bow and arrow and gave it to Robin.

"You do archery huh?" Regina asked, widely impressed.

"Oh yes," Robin replied as he took an arrow and placed it in the bow. "My father taught me when I was a young lad."

It was then that he looked at her with an expression that was slowly starting to look like anticipation. Like he was waiting for her to say something. After a few seconds of contemplating, she finally understood.

"Robin, if you think I'm gonna make a joke, I'm not."

And she wasn't. All her life she has always hated it when people judge and laugh at something someone does. It mostly happened when she was human and under her parents' roof. She was treated just as poorly as the African slaves that were brought in only because everyone in town knew her parents. Since her parents were powerful people, no one had commented on how she wasn't even supposed to be a slave. She wasn't enough of a minority to be one. When the government came around to do the annual census, Regina was always counted as a whole person instead of 3/5 of one. That was the one thing she always hated. So no, she wasn't going to make a joke.

His look changed to appreciation. "Thank you. Almost everyone has managed to squeeze at least one joke in. Even my friends but that was when we met. Now, they just pummel anyone who even dares to crack a joke at me."

"That's sweet." Regina smiled. "Now, let's this talent of yours."

He gave her a small smile and raised his bow. He took a few calming deep breaths and let the arrow loose. It ended up hitting the middle of the target. Regina found herself even more impressed when the next two arrows wound up scarily close to the first arrow.

"Speechless?" he asked once he gave the man back the bow.

"A little," she admitted. "I would've expected that skill to belong to someone older. I'm very impressed."

"Why thank you. Would you like to pick out a prize?" He gestured to the stuffed animals lining the side walls of the booth. Once she picked out a giant stuffed bear, they went on their way.

After a few minutes of silence between them, Robin broke it and said, "I have something I need to ask you."

Regina was a bit taken aback by his tone. It was seriousness with a hint of either nervousness or dread, she couldn't tell. She could tell that whatever it was, it was on the negative side of the scale if the dread she picked up in Robin's voice was anything to go by.

"Okay."

"Marian mentioned to me in passing that apparently, she believes you're not a nice person. And before you say anything, I didn't believe her." Robin said quickly. She nodded, urging him to continue. "She also mentioned a conversation you both had in the locker room where you threatened each other. She said that she went to follow you to apologize but she saw something interesting."

 _Son of a bitch! What if she saw?_

"Interesting? Like what?" she asked, trying not to put fear in her voice.

"She said that there were scars on your body and that you were shaking with rage. She made it sound like you had anger management issues."

 _So she didn't see, thank god!_

"I'm not gonna deny that, Robin. I do have anger issues, which I've had for a very long time. Since early childhood, actually. That topic is something I wish to never experience or talk about. Ever."

Robin nodded. "I understand. My father's a touchy subject for me, too. How about we make a list of the lines the other shouldn't cross? Unless my father and your childhood are the only two things?"

"Pretty much," Regina agreed.

"Well, then let's go play more carnival games, milady." Robin took her hand in his and started leading her towards his next favorite booth.


	5. Chapter 5

_**A/N: I know it's been a long time since I've updated, but school has been crazy! To make up for that, this chapter is longer than the others. Enjoy!**_

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The rest of the carnival was even better. Regina let Robin play more of the carnival games, which led to more prizes that he ended up giving to her. They decided to take a break from the games and ride the Ferris Wheel and the carousel. When they got hungry, Robin decided to introduce Regina to the wonders of fried food. He made her try everything, from funnel cakes to fried butter. She had tried to contain her laughter at his enthusiasm over a small town carnival.

An hour later, they decided to leave.

They spent the short drive to Robin's house talking about what fried food tasted the best. Regina kept saying the fried jalapeños but he was adamant in saying the funnel cake.

"How can you like something over treats? They're addicting!" Robin said once Regina parked in front of his house.

"I didn't really grow up with much sugar," Regina admitted.

"Huh. You know, besides learning about your anger issues that is the only thing I've learned about you all night. I've been talking about myself the entire time."

"You're right. I guess I unintentionally allowed an 'all about you' night."

Robin pondered something for a moment. "You know, it's only fair that since I gave you a day about me that you would give me one about you."

She nodded. "Very well. I'll give you my 'all about me' day on Friday."

"Friday it is then, milady." He smiled as he looked her.

They suddenly found themselves getting lost in each other's eyes. Him in her warm chocolate brown eyes; her in his baby blue. Without her even thinking about it, she found herself gravitating closer to him and him to her. In the back of her mind, she knows that he's a human and she's a vampire and that whatever they are will never work. But right now that's not the part of her that she's listening to. She's going with the part that's telling her to go with what feels right.

For some reason, she's not afraid of hurting him in this moment. She feels that she can somewhat trust herself, trust that for the time being, she's in control. With that comforting thought, she closed the remaining distance and pressed her lips to his. Robin surprised her by grabbing the back of her neck and deepening the kiss.

A moan had surprisingly escaped her lips. He was that good of a kisser. He was gentle yet he was bold enough to remove his lips from hers and latch onto her neck. Instinctively, she tilted to give him better access. As his mouth moved up and down her neck, her pulse started to race. Losing herself in the moment, she didn't notice that her fangs had slid down.

When she could no longer feel his mouth on her neck she opened her eyes. To her horror, she was in a dangerous zone that was Robin Locksley's neck. She instantly jerked away.

"What's wrong?" he asked, looking concerned.

"Nothing," she immediately responded. Looking around for anything but the cold hard truth, she noticed that one of the front windows had moved. Apparently Caroline loved to meddle in every aspect of her son's life. "It's just that your mother isn't being very subtle right now."

Robin looked behind him to see for himself. He turned back around with a groan. "Oh god! I'm never gonna hear the end of this."

"You should probably go and get it over with," she told him.

"Yeah, I should do that. Um…I'll see you tomorrow at school." Robin got out of the car before Regina could say anything.

Once she saw that he was safely inside, she wacked her hands against the steering wheel. "Shit!" She couldn't believe she almost had done that. Shaking her head, she placed her car in drive and went home silently hoping what had almost transpired would never happen again.

The rest of the week passed by in a blur and it was Friday already. Today was the day Regina promised to show Robin everything that she was comfortable with about her. Before she got into the car with her son she made sure to grab the notebook that she had stashed in her bookshelf. The only person she has shown the notebook to was Henry. She didn't know if she should feel afraid that for some strange reason she trusts Robin enough or happy for herself that she's finally opening up after two and a half centuries of being on Earth.

Once she walked down the stairs, she was greeting with an irritated Henry. "What took you so long?"

She shrugged. "I had to double check and make sure I had everything. Did you?"

"More like triple check. And no, I didn't need to. I'm not freakishly OCD like you, mom."

"I am not OCD. Can't a mother like me have some sense of order in her life?" she asked with her arms crossed.

"That sounds like OCD. Or is it a control freak? I can't seem to tell." At his mother's scowl, he decided to give her a hug. "And that's why I love you."

She returned the hug and said, "Uh-huh. Get in the car, we're gonna be late for school."

Luckily Regina was a fast driver as the bell rang to let students know to get to class. She was unlucky by pulled into an available parking lot on the far side of campus. As she got out of the car and started speed-walking with her son, her mind drifted to Robin as it has been lately over the past week. She knows that having any kind of relationship with him was stupid and dangerous. Even if Robin never found out about what she was he was already starting to take a wrecking ball to her life. At first she was this organized, OCD control freak, and now she was constantly forgetting things. Her life is in shambles right now, and oddly she couldn't care less. The rational part of her brain is telling her that she's being stupid, but the other part is telling her to have fun. She hadn't really had fun since Daniel, and that was quite sad.

Her thoughts then drifted to the last time they had been truly alone. She had been very surprised that she nearly lost control. Normally bloodlust doesn't happen when just kissing occurs, only when in a more intimate setting. She despised the fact that she got closer to Robin in a dangerous setting for the first time in half a century. It hurt even more when she couldn't even remember getting close to his neck like that. She barely came to when she was about to bite down into his flesh. She couldn't even fathom the consequences if she hadn't of snapped out of it.

Her son pulled her out of her thoughts. "Can we use our powers and run to class?" At his mother's look he pointed out that it was either that or getting detention.

"Let's just run at a human pace, c'mon." And with that, mother and son ran as fast as humanly possible to their history class on the other side of the school. They just made it through the door when the bell rang to start class.

"Nice to grace us with your presence, Mr. and Miss Mills. Take your seats," Mr. Moretti said with an irritated look on his face. It was no secret that the history teacher had taken a thorough dislike to the two of them and it's barely been a week. All week, Regina's been outsmarting Mr. Moretti at the urging of Robin, which had put a furious look on the teacher's face. It didn't help that Henry was sitting next to his mother silently laughing. After the second day, Robin told her that it didn't matter if Mr. Moretti hated them or not and that he's been on his bad side for years.

Speaking of Robin, looking around the classroom, there was no sign of him. Right next to his usual seat, however, was an annoyed Marian. Ignoring the girl, Regina and Henry went to the back and took their seats. Mother and son had formed a routine over the past week where they would get a pen and notebook out and either pretend to write notes or do other homework. Since they had been to high school at least five times over the past century and lived through most of the history, they felt like they didn't need to take notes, just do the homework.

When she finished a problem on her Calculus homework, Henry had visibly stiffened next to her. Looking up, she was about to ask him what was wrong, when it was plainly obvious. There was a small piece of paper with girly handwriting on it that made its way onto Henry's desk. Regina looked around and noticed that Marian wasn't in the same position she was when class started and it seemed that she was subtly glancing behind her every so often.

Enraged, she grabbed the note so she could read it.

 _ **Regina, someone told me something dark about your past. I have to wonder, who's Cora?**_

Her initial reaction was shock. _How would she know anything about Cora?_ Shock then gave into pure rage. She crumpled up the piece of paper and used it as a temporary stress ball. Marian was getting on her damn last nerve. It was getting to the point where she was thoroughly tempted to lure her into the woods so she could rip her fucking head off. _No one would miss her if I did that_ she decided. It was after that thought that Henry laced his left hand in her right. It calmed her down some, but not enough to ignore the smug look that Marian had planted on her face.

"Ignore her, please Reny?" Henry whispered in her ear.

Taking a deep breath to calm herself, she whispered back, "I'm trying."

She ended up closing her eyes and taking calm, even breaths through the rest of the lesson. When the bell rang, she opened her eyes and let go of Henry's hand. Giving her son a reassuring look, he nodded and grabbed his things and headed to his next class. She looked down the entire time as she put her things in her bag so as not to meet Marian's eyes that she could feel burning into her skull. She was so distracted with not noticing Marian that she barely ran into the body that was standing right in front of her.

Regina looked up and smiled, surprised. "Robin? Where were you at the beginning of class?"

"Well, milady, I had to go pick up my truck." He dangled some keys in front of her face. "Now I can play the full gentleman role and drive you anywhere you would like to go."

"I didn't mind driving, Robin," she said smiling, the Marian problem temporarily placed in the back of her mind. "But if you wish to keep your man card, I will allow it."

"Ugh, you're such a tease, milady, but thank you nonetheless. Now, I'm pretty sure that part of keeping my man card, is to walk the lady to her next class." He stretched his arm out and Regina placed hers inside it.

"Lead the way, Mr. Locksley."

Robin was the perfect gentleman and he even opened the door to her English class. They said a brief goodbye and parted ways.

English went by slower than Regina liked. She would never admit it out loud to anybody, but she was finding herself eager to see Robin again. Occupying herself with math homework wasn't helping the time fly any faster. It was technically her fault that she finished the English paper that they were supposed to be working on in class. She ended up turning it in at the beginning of class. To say that the teacher was surprised was an understatement. After getting home last night, she didn't have anything to do, so she finished the paper that apparently wasn't due for another week. Since she was technically undead, she didn't need as much sleep as everyone else. Miss Blanchard, the teacher, said that she could do something quiet for the duration of class. Once she sat in her seat, she pulled out a piece of paper and started drawing.

Regina was surprised that she didn't jump out of her seat when the bell rang. Putting her nearly finished artwork in the notebook she grabbed from her bookshelf, she rushed to Psychology.

When she walked through the door, Robin was already in his seat at the front of the room. He was totally engrossed in the psychology textbook that he didn't notice her standing in front of him. She pulled out her drawing notebook and dropped it on top of what he was reading. Regina let out a chuckle when he jumped about a foot in the air.

"Regina? You scared me," he said when he looked up. Before she could apologize, he gestured to the notebook and asked, "What's this?"

"You got a day to talk about yourself at the carnival. I told you that I would repay the favor. Remember?"

"Not really," he said with a smirk. "I was quite distracted."

She rolled her eyes. "Get your mind out of the gutter, Robin." She then sat down next to him. She gestured to the notebook again.

The first thing he saw when he opened it was a drawing of himself. Before he could get a good look at it, it was snatched from his grasp.

When he looked at her with confusion, she said, "It's not finished."

With a look that clearly stated that he wasn't going to press the matter, he went back to the rest of the drawings.

With an awe-inspiring smile, he said, "Wow, Regina. These are good."

"Thank you," she said modestly. Regina knew that if she were still human she'd be blushing right now. Nobody has had that effect on her, not even Daniel she was ashamed to admit. It took Daniel weeks of constant badgering for her to ever open up her emotions and to talk to him about her past. Not even a full week has gone by and Robin is already making her feel emotions she only reserves for her son.

After the bell signaling for class to start rang, Robin asked if he could continue looking at them during lunch which Regina agreed.

XXXXXX

Robin was literally bouncing in his seat waiting impatiently for health class to be over with so he could go to lunch. Ever since Regina had shown a part of herself to him last period, he had been itching to see more of her. From looking at her face during the carnival when she briefly talked about herself, he could immediately tell that she had a lot of pain in her past. He never for one moment had believed what Marian had said about her to be true. He was curious as to why Marian had made that assumption, but his mother had raised him to always believe the best in people. Hopefully by the end of the day, Regina would reveal enough of her past for him to actually get a chance to get to know her.

As soon as the bell rang, Robin threw everything in his bag and ran out of the classroom in the direction of the cafeteria. He was so excited to see her that he ran all the way and directly to the table him and his friends have been sitting at since freshman year. The only person who was exempt from the tradition was Marian for obvious reasons. Graham and John were ecstatic about his decision to say the least. Before the breakup, no one could stand Marian when she wasn't with Robin. After the split, people were more comfortable in sitting at their table.

Once he sat down, he pulled his lunchbox out of his backpack. He normally never brings lunch from home, but since Regina was telling him about herself, he needed to save enough time to learn everything about her.

"Hey Robin! Where's your girlfriend?" John asked as he sat down with his plate of food with Graham right behind him.

Robin gave one of his best friends an annoyed glare. "She's not my girlfriend, John."

"Really?" John asked with a raised brow. "Because I swear you must've mentioned that you had a little make-out session earlier this week. Is that right Graham?"

Ignoring Robin's groan, Graham agreed. "Yes John. I distinctly remember Robin telling us—his best friends—that it was the best make-out session he's ever had."

Graham and John laughed at the color their best friend's face had taken. Robin was too busy being mortified to see that Regina had come up to their table. Banging his head on the table, he practically yelled at his friends. "You guys are the worst!"

"What did your best friends do to warrant self-abuse?" A feminine voice asked from behind.

Robin instantly shot up from his sulking. He ended up going red again from further embarrassment. He was fine with making a fool of himself in front of his guy friends, but he tried to make sure he didn't do it in front of the opposite gender. He groaned again when he realized he just did. _Regina's gonna think I'm too awkward for her_ he thought.

Shaking his head, he exclaimed. "Regina!" He looked at her hands and noticed she didn't have any food with her. It had been that way all week. It made Robin wonder if she didn't eat at all. Looking at her he could tell she wasn't anorexic. She had all the right curves a woman should have and when she wore short-sleeved shirts he could see well-defined muscles. Deciding to bring it up, he commented, "No lunch again?"

She shook her head 'no'. "I usually don't eat lunch. Just breakfast and dinner."

"Hmm. Well, after I eat my home lunch you have my undivided attention for 'All-about-you Day'."

Just as she was about to reply, someone unwanted came up and started talking. "I could give you a crash course on 'Regina Mills 101' if you want, Robin. I can already tell she won't be open to you about things in her past, but I will."

Before Robin could berate Marian for interrupting their lunch, Regina rounded on her instead. "Yes. How do you know anything about me? It's practically impossible for someone like you to figure any of it out. No one knows me; I'm kind of a loner. So who told you?"

Marian smirked. "Now what would be the fun in telling you now?"

Robin had had enough. His ex-girlfriend was getting on his last nerve. "Marian! Just leave Regina alone. She is no threat to you because you and I have no chance of being together again. It's not gonna bloody happen. So stop being jealous and go away!"

Briefly there was a hint of hurt and anger on Marian's face, but was quickly replaced with a sickeningly sweet smile. "Well, once I tell you Regina's deepest darkest secret, I won't have a reason to be jealous. Let's just say you won't like her very much once I tell you."

Robin turned his gaze from Marian to Regina. On a quick glance one would see a calm and collected individual, but on getting to know her, he found that her emotions are expressed more through the eyes than anyone else. She was scared, probably at what Marian could have to say and she was also angry, most likely that Marian was getting on her nerves. Suddenly, her face turned expressionless faster than it took him to read it.

Regina started to laugh, which attracted some of the nearby students' attention. Once she stopped, she stood and got in Marian's face. That motion surprised her so much she took a couple steps back. Regina got in her face again and whispered, "You're pathetic" before she started to walk past her to get out of the cafeteria.

Robin was proud that Regina didn't do anything to egg Marian on even more. That brought a smile to his face that this girl was nothing like his past girlfriend. That she wasn't the type to pick fights. The smile disappeared when Marian spoke again.

"I'm pathetic? Question, is that what Cora would always say to you?" she asked, making Regina halt in her steps and causing her back to stiffen. Marian smirked at the fact that what she said had gotten to the new girl enough that she still stood rigid. By that time, Robin noticed that now everyone in the cafeteria was now watching in fascination and curiosity. _Great_ he thought. Knowing that Marian will humiliate her, he stood up and walked toward her.

"Marian, please leave her alone," he pleaded.

"No," she simply said with a dark look in her brown eyes. Thinking back to every time he's looked at her, Robin has never seen that look. He has to admit that he has seen her jealous side and her mean girl side, but this seemed to be a lot worse than before. Normally in the past Marian has made fun of people and moved on claiming that she got bored or they weren't worth her constant attention. This new Marian was doing what he never thought she would do. She was going to push and poke at everything in Regina's past and then some.

Pushing past Robin with a strength he didn't know she possessed, she went straight to face Regina whose hands were trembling with what Robin could guess as anger. Looking up at Regina's face, he was surprised to see that it was a mostly pleasant, but stiff smile. He wondered if that was how she controlled her anger issues, with thinking happy thoughts. Marian's voice brought him out of his staring.

"I know a lot about you Regina Mills."

From the angle that Robin was at, he could tell that she was trying very hard not to laugh. "Oh really?" she asked. "What do you know about me besides this Cora person?"

Annoyingly enough, Marian decided to play coy. "What do you think I know about you?"

Regina was starting to get a little irritated, but she didn't let it show. "I'm not in the mood to play games with you." With that, she went to walk away again, but Marian stopped her again.

"I know that you're a bastard." With those words, Regina whipped back around with barely contained rage plastered on her face. She opened her mouth to say something, but Marian stopped her. "That's right. I know that your mother slept with someone else to produce you. As for who that is, I don't know and I also know that you don't know either. I know that both your mother and your supposed father hated you because you were just a reminder of a stupid mistake."

By now Regina is trembling even more. "H-how do you—?"

"I'm not done," Marian said, holding her hand up. "I know that when you were fourteen you met someone that in the end your parents didn't approve of, but that didn't stop you from sneaking behind their backs. I find it funny that both a bastard and a baby out of wedlock has embedded themselves in your family tree. How did your parents react knowing that some sorry excuse for a man deflowered their youngest daughter? Where's the baby now?"

Both the crowd and Robin were speechless. He didn't think that Marian was capable of being this mean. There has to be something wrong with her. _Right?_ The sad part of this interaction is that according to the growing rage on Regina's face is that what Marian has been saying is true. He didn't want to forcefully grab his ex-girlfriend so he decided on more meaningless words in hope that she would stop.

"Marian please stop. Nobody's life is perfect, so stop degrading her based on her past." He decided to move in front of her so she would look at him instead of Regina. "This isn't like you. Why are you doing this, Marian? What in the bloody hell has gotten into you?"

Looking into her eyes, he saw a brief flash of guilt on her face before it was quickly masked with annoyance. "Because, Robin. Like I told you before, I don't want anyone I care about around her. She's bad news, I can feel it. I will do anything to prevent her from wreaking havoc."

He scoffed. "Unbelievable." He was finished with all of Marian's bullshit, so he planned on taking Regina away from this mess. Seeing that she hadn't moved from her spot, he was surprised to see the look on her face.

With confusion plastered all over she asked, "What the hell is wrong with you? Why are you doing this?"

Surprisingly, Marian got in her face and answered, "Someone told me about the real you. They told me what happened to your parents." She walked back to where she was and turned to face Regina again with a crazed smile on her face. "Your parents were murdered and you know who did it."

"Stop…" Regina warned, her angry expression returning.

"Why? Everyone in this room deserves to know who you really are! Everyone deserves to know that they share the same air as the person—"

"Stop!" Regina yelled with full force. Robin didn't think that her voice could carry that much volume.

"Make me," Marian taunted. "I mean, what will you do? Kill me like you did your parents?"

Robin was appalled. Killing anyone is a serious accusation to be making even if it could be true. He somehow knew that the only way that he'll get the full story is if he asked. The expression that Regina was now sporting was one full of pain and guilt. Once he saw the anguish, he felt like he should be respectful of her despite what people may think of her now after today.

"That was a serious accusation," Regina commented, trying to keep any emotion she was feeling at bay.

"It's only an accusation if it's not true," Marian pointed out.

" _I_ didn't kill them." She said with a straight face, enunciating the word 'I'.

If Robin was any of the other students in the room who looked like they were encouraging Marian and her bullying, he would've commented that the one second he took looking at her eyes, he knew she was somewhat lying. Oddly enough, that still didn't change his opinion of her. He still viewed her as the bold and audacious woman he's been getting to know all week. He had to believe that there was another side—her side—to the story. His mother had taught him that nothing was as simple as black and white.

Marian got in her face further with a sly smirk. "Sure you didn't. Now my source briefly mentioned a name. Now tell me, who's Daniel?"

The brief shock of what Marian said disappeared from Regina's in place of pure rage. Robin was honestly shocked at that. He racked his brain and couldn't find a single person that has come into his life that showed that much rage.

Consumed by her rage, Regina literally went for Marian's throat. Robin was kind of smug about the surprise on Marian's face when Regina did that.

Noise had erupted around them almost immediately following Regina's reaction to Marian's taunts. Robin saw a few students run out of the cafeteria with fear in their eyes, either to get away or to notify a teacher. Robin diverted his attention back to the two girls when Regina spoke again in a voice that didn't seem to suit her. It was cold and dark, the complete opposite of what he was used to, and he didn't like it one bit.

"I think you and I both know that you know _exactly_ who Daniel is. Now, I'm only gonna say this once so you'd better listen to me. Are you listening?" she asked, which prompted Marian to nod her head up and down with fear still in her eyes. "Good. I only want one thing and that is you to leave me alone. Got it?"

Regina didn't even wait for an answer, she just roughly let her throat go. She closed her eyes and took a couple steps back. Robin thought she was controlling her anger, but he wasn't entirely sure. A few seconds later, she opened her eyes and ran out of the cafeteria.

Now that he knew Regina was out of harm's way, he immediately rounded on Marian. "What the bloody hell were you thinking, Marian?! What the hell did she to do you?!"

For once in her life, it seemed that Marian was speechless. "I-I-I d-don't k-k-know w-what h-happened. I-I d-d-don't know w-why I d-did that."

Looking at her Robin was baffled that it seemed that what she was saying was the truth, or at least she might believe she's telling the truth. Despite the fear and confusion in her eyes while she was babbling, he was still being skeptical. Knowing Marian, it could all just be some elaborate scheme to get him to go back to her.

Marian must've seen the skeptical look on his face, so she immediately grabbed his arm. "Please believe me, Robin. I don't even know why I did that."

Robin hesitated before he answered. "I can't."

Before she could open her mouth, Robin turned around and left the cafeteria without a word, presumably to find Regina.

Looking back to the past few days, she still couldn't remember certain things and the things she did remember were a bit muffled. Like Robin, she was equally as confused as to her behavior. It felt like she didn't even know the information that she was spitting out. The look on Regina's face when she spouted it all out made her feel a little bit guilty. She still wants Robin to herself but the new girl didn't deserve what she did. Before she walked out of the cafeteria, but in the opposite direction, she felt that she should apologize for her behavior the next time she saw her.

* * *

 _ **A/N: I hope you enjoyed this chapter! I didn't want to make Marian an evil bitch, so now you know the reason behind her rudeness. I wonder who "convinced" her to do that huh?**_


	6. Chapter 6

**Sorry for the late update! Here's another chapter!**

* * *

When the bell rang for lunch, Henry immediately packed up his things and headed to the library. Even though he loved school, Health wasn't something he was interested in. The only subjects he cares about is the writing part of English and even the basics of History, nothing scientifical. He felt that with science everything was limited and based on concrete evidence. With writing, there is no limit to what can occur. He could put everything down on paper: his life and even crazy adventures he's always dreamed of going on. Everything magical and full of fairytale endings, the complete opposite of his life.

Writing adventures was the only brief escape from his life that has worked. Growing up wasn't easy with the moving around constantly in order to avoid suspicions. Henry had always used his imagination to explain the reasons for the moving when he was at a young age. He would imagine that they were on some adventure to find hidden treasure. After a while, he finally understood that most of the time when they moved was because of his mother's many slipups.

He loved his mother, he really did. He just hated it when she would make horrible decisions, most of the time without thinking about him or the consequences. It was only when he was turned into a vampire himself, that his mother finally took a hard look at herself and started changing for the better. The only times where she slipped up was when she got angry and either herself or hunters who wanted her dead. His mother told him that she's had anger issues for a long time, but never specified as to why but he at least figured out who caused it all. Henry didn't know everything about what happened between his mother and his grandparents, but what he did find out is that it would be close to impossible for her to completely let go of her anger.

His mother's anger issues led him to think about Cora and Leo. He knew he shouldn't. His mother never liked him to think about his grandparents. The main reason behind that being that she didn't want him to think horrible thoughts like how he should kill them. Even though Henry believed that he could think what he wanted, he knew his mother was in the right place in not wanting him to become as horrible as she could be.

Shaking his head of negative thoughts, Henry decided to continue his book that he started to write when they moved here. It was about how fairytale characters were cursed by an evil villain. That was as far as he got, he was still thinking of more ideas. Once he got all of his supplies out, he heard a throat being cleared right in front of him. He looked up and saw a girl with blonde hair with blue eyes hiding behind some glasses. What really stood out about her was the red leather jacket she was currently sporting. Henry could only imagine the fashion lecture his mother would give her.

"You're the new kid right?" she blurted out while pushing her glasses back up her nose.

He set his pencil down before responding. "Yeah. Who wants to know?"

"Oh, sorry! I forgot to introduce myself," she said while smacking herself on the forehead. She held her hand out as she continued. "My name is Emma Swan, I'm a junior here."

"Henry Mills, junior as well," he said as he took Emma's offered hand.

The moment both of their hands connected was something he hadn't felt in all his decades of living. It was a hot, burning sensation that made him immediately retract his hand from Emma's grasp. Shaking his hand from the pain, he noticed that she had a confused look on her face. It was either because she didn't know what happened or she did know what happened but was confused about it.

"You're a vampire?" she whispered so only he could hear.

Now it was Henry's turn to be taken aback. "H-how did you know that?" he asked, trying to make his voice demanding instead of scared like he secretly was.

Emma shrugged as if it were an obvious answer to a simple question. "Simple. I'm a witch and I could sense what you were when we shook hands. That's the only way to detect another supernatural creature without needing a spell. That I know of anyway." She sat down across the table before she continued. "With vampires I feel a cold and dark sensation while they feel a burning one, with werewolves both of us would ache all over and with my fellow kin we mutually feel a warm and happy sensation. Now from your reaction, I take it that you've never met a witch before?"

Henry had to think about that for a moment. In all his decades of being alive, he's never felt that burning sensation without it coming from the sun and not a person. He was pretty sure he's never met one considering of how protective his mother was of him. She would always talk about how they should never trust a witch, saying that there was a centuries' old feud between the two species. His mother made it sound like it was worse than the feud between vampires and werewolves, especially since witches were a servant of nature and vampires were an abomination of it. His mother didn't know the cause of the feud between vampires and werewolves, but she did think that it was either because it's a stupid reason, or it started a very long time ago and only the involved parties knew.

"No, I haven't. I would've remembered that feeling before," he finally said.

Suddenly an interesting thought came to his mind. "Why aren't you doing anything?"

"What do you mean?" she asked.

He sighed. "Typically when someone I meet finds out what I am, they have one of three reactions: one, they think I'm joking; two, they do believe me and are fascinated; or three, they believe me and are feeling either fear or anger towards me. I've been observing you since you sat down and I haven't noticed any of those reactions in your facial expressions or your body language. So, I ask again, why aren't you doing anything?"

Emma didn't answer for a moment, then she sighed. "I guess the reason lies behind my superpower." When Henry gave a confused look, she continued to explain. "I can tell when someone is lying. I can also tell if someone is good or bad based on their facial expressions and body language." She finished with a smile.

"So what does that mean for me?" he asked.

"Simple. You're a nice guy Henry Mills. I mean, there are vampires out there who—" Emma suddenly paused as a new thought entered her mind. The longer she pondered her thought, the paler she seemed to get. He was about to ask her if she was okay when she started speaking again. "Mills? Henry Mills... Are you by chance related to a Regina Mills? Please say you aren't!"

He was taken aback by her sudden change in emotion. One minute she was carefree and the next she looked like she was scared of her own shadow. "Um…yeah I am actually. She's my mother," He said hesitantly.

"Shit!" I heard her mutter before she put her head in her hands, covering how upset she sounded. After a couple of minutes, she looked up looking like she was trying to calm herself down without much success. It was by mere speculation that Emma Swan has heard of his mother's fearsome reputation. He couldn't tell whether he should tell her that his mother wasn't a monster anymore or if he should keep quiet knowing the possibility that he wouldn't be believed.

When it looked like she wasn't going to start talking, Henry calmly asked, "What exactly do you know about my mother?"

For a minute, he didn't think she had heard him because she was so quiet and staring off into space. She then shook herself out of her petrified daze and responded. "My family is the type to always fight for good which is why they made it their mission to learn everything they can about the evil in this world. Sadly, they're making me continue this tradition. I wish we were like the other witch families that kept to themselves," She paused to take a breath. "Your mother gets mentioned at my house constantly. My parents keep obsessing over every possible path to take her down. I guess you could say her past… misdeeds are popular among us witches."

Henry let what Emma said soak in. One of the only possible ways that someone would want to do harm to his mother was either she did something to them or the idea of taking down Regina has been ingrained in their brains for generations. That last thought made him a bit wary. Taking measures to protect his mother, he leaned forward and said almost threateningly, "I hope you're not a part of this obsession. Trust me when I say that if my mother were to catch wind of this, it would end badly for everyone involved."

Emma immediately shook her head. "No, trust me I'm nothing like my parents. I don't believe in eliminating all the bad out there like I'm on some insane rampage. I do believe that evil must be stopped, but not to the extreme measures that my parents are resorting to."

"Do you know why your parents are obsessed over her?" he asked, staring her hard in the face. If he wasn't paying as much attention as he was, he wouldn't have seen a brief flinch at the mention of his question. "You do, don't you?"

Before she could think about responding, they were interrupted.

"Henry? You're Henry Mills right?" One of the guys in Henry's history class walked up out of breath. He is the one who his mother is always around with. Robin something, he thought his name was.

"Yes?"

"Something happened in the cafeteria." Robin explained, which instantly made Henry worried. Not for his mother per se, but for the people around her. "Don't worry, Regina's fine…I think. Marian said some things to her which got her a little angry, but she ran off before she did something. I figured you would know where she would've gone."

 _The locker room_ Henry instantly thought. His mother would always submerge herself in cold water to help with her anger. Odds are the showers in the girl's locker room is where she would be. "Don't worry," he told Robin. "I know where she went."

And with that, he got up and practically ran to the locker room. Once he was right outside, he hesitated. _What if there's girls in there?_ He wondered. Then he realized that there weren't. If there were, he would be hearing muffled whimpering rather than the shower running.

"Just go in Henry," Emma said right behind him, which made him jump a little. That small action made her laugh. "Wow, I can't believe I actually scared one of your kind!"

"Shut up," he mumbled before he just went in.

XXXXXX

Regina was trembling the whole way out of the cafeteria. The number one thought at the front of her mind was how someone could know that much about her. She was too old for anyone in this day in age to know something, unless another vampire talked or they found written documentation. The first scenario was more plausible than the second, since there were vampires in this town back then. Regina did keep a journal of her life from when she learned how to write to when she left town with Henry, but that journal was currently on her shelf in her room. Unless someone like her parents kept a journal that she didn't know about, the first option was the reason she was going with.

Besides, the first reason made the most sense especially with what went on with Marian. She knew that something was off when Marian was practically spouting out the truth of Regina's past without getting her facts wrong. At one point during that conversation, Regina noticed that even though it sounded like she was pouring all of her feelings into letting everyone know her secrets, it didn't quite reach her eyes. That was when she realized that Marian had been compelled to say those things. Having been a master at manipulation and compulsion in the past, Regina knew that once the conversation was done, she wouldn't remember what was said.

That didn't stop Regina from wanting to hurt the girl for that though, which was why she immediately went straight for the girls' locker room. She knew that there would be no one in there just in case she lashed out in uncontrollable anger. Deep down, Regina knew, that she hoped there would be someone in the locker room. So that she could channel her rage into a human girl's neck, but she wanted to make her son proud. Luckily for her, there was no one.

She immediately took off her shirt with trembling hands and headed towards the showers. Turning the nobs all the way to cold, she then ducked her head completely under the steady stream. Getting soaked finally allowed her to take calming, deep breaths.

She didn't know how long she was under the cold stream, but after a while she heard voices coming from right outside the locker room. She didn't think anything of it considering there wasn't going to be any classes for another ten minutes or so. Just in case, she decided to get out of there. She had just turned off the water and was in the process of putting her shirt back on when her son rounded the corner.

Before he could open his mouth, she beat him to it. "I'm fine, Henry. You should be proud; I calmed down by myself."

"That fact won't stop me from feeling worried," Henry said, arms crossed.

"Worried about what? Me? Or the humans around me?" Regina asked, with a bitter tone. When her son didn't answer immediately, she picked up her backpack and made her way out of the locker room.

As she was walking away, she heard a faint "Reny!", but she wasn't gonna hear any of it. For now, at least. Currently, she was still rattled over the events in the cafeteria so she wouldn't be much in the mood to deal with anything.

Once she walked out of the locker room, she was met with blond hair and green eyes hidden behind thick glasses. Green eyes that were showing fear, most likely towards her. Before Regina could interrogate this person further, Henry appeared.

"This is Emma Swan," he introduced.

Swan? The name sounded familiar, but she couldn't quite put a finger on it. Instead of racking her brain pointlessly, she decided to find out who she was herself. She would do the whole interrogating thing she normally does but Henry would see and they were in a public place with several cameras for safety purposes. The also knew that simply asking this girl would be a waste of time considering the guarded expression on her face, put there to mask the fear Regina knew she was feeling. If the sound of her heartbeat and the smell of sweat was anything to go by.

As soon as she took one step to analyze this Miss Swan, she got this sudden sharp pain in her skull. She immediately stepped back with a groan. It felt like needles were poking at her brain endlessly. Sadly, she was no stranger to this type of spell so she was able to pull out of it quickly. Once the pain was gone she was able to think clearly. Wait… spell? Now she knew why the name Swan sounded so familiar.

"Swan," she stated, looking into the blonde's eyes. "A witch."

"Not just a witch," Emma shook her head, ignoring Henry's warning as he somehow knew what she was about to say. "I'm Mary Margaret and David's daughter."

That statement immediately sank into Regina's mind. She knew exactly who this girl's parents were…and she didn't like it one bit.

* * *

 **A/N: Dun-dun-dun! I'm planning on doing Regina's past with Snow a little bit different**

 **P.S. I don't know if any of you have noticed some similarities between this and a certain vampire show... it's intentional! That show is my favorite version of vampires! =)**


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